In traditional replication methodologies, such as canonical (i.e., primary/backup) replication, a client in a distributed storage system sends all edits to a single master (i.e., canonical) node. Further, in canonical replication systems, manifests (i.e., large plain text files) are stored by nodes in the distributed storage system to track files stored in the distributed storage system. For example, when a client performs a write to the distributed storage system, the manifest must be retrieved and edited to include the new file. However, manifest files typically reach several hundred megabytes in size, requiring a significant amount of processing power to parse the manifest file to make edits. Further, several weeks' worth of manifests may be retained, with frequent edits being made during that time, requiring gigabytes or even terabytes of storage.